


Lucky You

by BennyGeckoOfficial



Series: Eddie [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Definitely Canon Divergence, F/M, idk i'm testing something out w my courier and benny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:48:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21734794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BennyGeckoOfficial/pseuds/BennyGeckoOfficial
Summary: Eddie had no memories of her life before the gunshot.Benny wished she could see the irony in everything that had transpired.
Relationships: Benny (Fallout)/Female Courier, Benny (Fallout)/Original Female Character
Series: Eddie [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566511
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Lucky You

**Author's Note:**

> So hi obviously this is hella canon divergent but I just wanted to try something, I don't know. I'm doing my best yo.

New Vegas was always a sight to behold at nighttime, and Benny thought he'd never tire of it. The neon signs glowed, and people bustled through the streets, and sometimes, into his casino.

Benny Gecko was the head chairman, _again_. There was a time where Swank was, but after Benny's return after escaping the Legion, he was head honcho once more. And that pesky courier was nowhere in sight. 

_Pesky_. He had to keep demonizing Eddie to himself. He had to keep telling himself she wasn't a good person, that she was a danger to his plans, but no dice. He couldn't lie that much to himself. Eddie was a firecracker, a chaotic force, and she was the most interesting person he'd ever met.

_Even before she was Eddie._

Eddie, of course, had no memory of the time before Benny shot her and left her for dead. That, or she was an impressive actor.

Or maybe, just maybe, Benny looked different now.

He lit up a cigarette. He liked remembering this story. It was a good story. Like a fairytale. And sometimes, he gave it a happy ending. Everyone was a sucker for a happy ending.

\--

Benny Gecko, one of the Boot Riders.

It wasn't all that bad. He had a permanent tan from the blistering Mojave sun, though. But tonight, well, he'd killed just enough gecko for something that was nothing short of a feast for himself. And he took good care of himself, really. He didn't trust many of the other tribals. He was starting a fire, everything was fine in the world-

_"BLOODY HELL, get the FUCK away from meeeee!!"_

A girl was screeching, running from a radscorpion. She had on a simple outfit, and there was a bag full of papers strapped to her side. She was booking it, trying to get away from this thing. Didn't look like she was armed, either - a rookie mistake, was this girl a vaultie or something? Didn't really look like it.  
Either way, Benny groaned, and he grabbed the weapon closest to him - an old machete. He stood, and ran over, making quick work of the radscorpion. Maybe there was a silver lining to his meal being interrupted - maybe the radscorpion had something on it-

He looked up at the girl standing above him, panting. 

_Oh._

It seemed the silver lining was standing right in front of him. A younger-looking woman, with long, dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She was a sight for sore eyes. She definitely wasn't a vaultie, not by the looks of her. So- who _was_ she?

"Wow, thank you! Man, I knew leaving my bat behind was a bad idea."  
She laughed a bit, and her smile melted his heart.   
"Lucky me, running into you."

"Yeah, lucky you..."  
There was something wistful to the way Benny said that. He just continued to stare, kneeling next to the radscorpion, as she tucked some hair behind her ear. 

"Uh- I'm Columbia! Do you... do you need help up?"  
She held a hand out for Benny, who took it after a while, standing. She was quite a bit shorter than him, actually. Huh.

_Columbia._

"I'm- uh... I'm Benny. You should be more careful, next time."  
Benny let go of Columbia's hand, and the girl just shrugged, looking sheepish.

"You're right, I know. It's just a hassle to lug around. But my family never taught me to use a gun or anything- so, I've got my baseball bat!"  
  
Benny could feel his heart racing. _Fuck_ , this was so stupid, feeling this way over some girl he'd just met. But she was just so...  
He didn't even know what to call her.

"Still, I... You could've been seriously hurt! What were you doing, anyways?!" He didn't mean to sound mad, but she was putting her life on the line, and for what?

"Oh! Well, I had some letters that needed to get to-"

He held up a hand and stopped her there, sighing. She was willing to put her life on the line for a job as a mailman.  
"...Sit down. You look hungry."

\--

Benny put out his cigarette, sighing to himself, when he heard Swank call from the doorway.

"Somethin' on your mind, boss?"

Swank was a good guy - a friend, Benny might even say. Before his return, sure, they were just two guys who worked together. But now...

Benny really had a friend.

"A lot, yeah."  
Benny mumbled, immediately going for another cigarette.  
"Has anyone seen the courier since her little stunt at Fortification Hill?"

"Nah, boss, nobody in all the Mojave's seen the broad, as far as I know."  
Swank wasn't really sure why Benny seemed so fixated with her, she was just some courier. She'd done a couple of things before disappearing off the face of the planet.

"Thanks, Swank. Let me know if anyone finds anything."  
He had eyes out in the Mojave. If someone saw her, he'd know.  
He needed to know.

She had to be ok.

\--

She kept coming back.

After that day, Columbia started making weekly stops to see Benny at the Boot Riders camp. She was almost always smiling, and she had stories to tell about the creatures she found and the people she'd met. She'd sit down with Benny, and lean against him, and the two of them would talk for hours before she needed to leave. When she left, it always left Benny feeling empty. Alone.

He always assumed one day he'd end up with a cutie from some other tribe. They'd get hitched, and the Boot Riders would have an ally. Win-win situation.

The more he saw Columbia, the more he knew that wasn't going to be the case. Not at all. 

He didn't know what day of the week it was, but it was late, starting to get dark out. And Columbia was walking towards the camp, her usual smile on her face. 

He didn't know if he said anything witty before he did it, but he pulled the girl into his arms, and he kissed her. It felt like the whole world stood still. It was just Benny, and Columbia. Benny and his little desert rose. 

He wanted to protect her. And that he did. When his girlfriend visited, he made sure she was fed, had a safe place to crash between deliveries, and he'd go on for hours about how much he loved her.

He _loved_ her, god, he did, more than anything. Whenever that girl was cuddled up to his chest, he felt like everything in the world disappeared. 

She would bring him things, sometimes. Things she found, or thought were interesting. And really, well, if they were interesting to her, he liked them too. Even if they were thing he'd seen a million times. 

And one day, she brought a ring.

"So-"

She'd begun, fiddling with the ring as she laid on his chest.

"From what I understand, from what my family told me..."

Her 'family' were no family at all. Benny didn't think highly of them. They were a gang of raiders who kidnapped her when she was a baby, raised her in the Capital Wasteland, and dumped her in the Mojave when she turned 16. But, he let her continue.

"-back home, you'd give a ring to someone to symbolize that you wanted to spend your whole life with them. Like, forever. I don't see much of that out there, but I always thought that was an interesting thing. Pledging yourself to someone, forever."

"Well-"  
Benny smirked down at the girl, letting his fingers tangle in her hair.  
"It doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world, does it?"  
He could certainly spend eternity with her laying against him like that.

"No, it doesn't."  
She nodded in reply, and held out the ring to him.  
"So... you should take this."

That confused the man a little. Take it?  
"Why? You could sell that off for a pretty amount of caps, I bet."

"I know, but I want _you_ to have it."  
Her voice was insistent, and he finally got what she was trying to get at. His face turned red.  
Oh.  
 _Oh_

"...So you wanna put up with me for longer than you already have, huh?"  
Benny smirked.

"Yeah. I think it'd be nice."  
She let him take the ring.  
"...Don't you?"  
  
Benny slid the ring on one of his fingers, and admired it, smiling.

"Yeah. I do."

That was his happy ending.

\--

Benny still kept the ring on.   
It wasn't too long after that that Benny disappeared. Cleaned up. Became one of the Chairmen, and not a Boot Rider.

His heart ached when he looked at it. A reminder of his desert rose. His Columbia.

He didn't really have a choice, though. He couldn't just wait for her to come around. He needed to go.

He regretted that decision. But soon? He was calling the shots. And he had the Platinum Chip, after a little stunt he'd pulled.

It was dark when he thought he'd killed the courier.

He couldn't see her. Even if he had seen her, would he have recognized her? It'd been a few years.

Who was he kidding? Of course he would've recognized her. And maybe she'd recognize him, if they'd been in the light.

He only knew he'd shot his desert rose when she walked into the Tops, and walked right up to Benny.

"You."

He turned, and looked to the voice. And he froze.

Columbia. _Columbia!_

He didn't speak. So, she continued.

"You're Benny Gecko. Right? The asshole who shot me. Your aim's shit."

Benny cleared his throat, and adjusted his tie.  
"Baby, I'm sure you've got plenty of questions-"

"It's not 'baby'."  
She spat.  
"My name is _Eddie._ But you didn't care enough to figure that out, did you?"

Eddie? No, no. That wasn't right. This was, with no doubt, his Columbia.  
"...Is that really your name?"  
He asked. She had the faintest bit of recognition, looking at him, but there was also something distant about the gaze. Like...

"Well, to be honest, I don't _fucking_ know. I saw that name on a poster after I woke up."  
Her glare remained fixated on him.  
"I don't remember anything before you _shot me._ "

...She didn't...  
That was a bluff, right? He unconsciously played with the ring on his figure. No, _no,_ Columbia remembered him! She had to. She had to...  
"...Why... Why don't we take this chat somewhere else, baby? You've got questions."

\--

Benny liked to end that story before he left Columbia. He liked to imagine after that, the two found a nice house. They lived together, happily, and maybe they had a kid who ran around the house. And he woke up every morning in a bed next to Columbia, who was cuddling up to his chest just the same as she'd been the night she gave him that ring. 

Benny and Columbia lived happily ever after, in his version of the story. New Vegas? What was New Vegas. All they knew was the little town they lived in. Maybe it was Goodsprings. Goodsprings seemed nice enough, in the short time he'd been there. Yes. Columbia and Benny, Benny and Columbia, in Goodsprings. Columbia worked as a tailor - she'd always expressed a want to make clothes that looked like prewar clothes, pretty dresses, nice suits. Benny went out, and he'd get their dinner. 

It was perfect.

And it wasn't real.

\--

"How could you do that to me?!"

Eddie was screaming. Rightfully so. Benny wasn't trying to stop her, he just poured them both a drink while she yelled. Not that she'd accept a drink from him, but he could hope.

"I probably had a _family._ People I loved! People who loved _me!_ But you didn't care about that, did you? Fuckin' prick."  
She was pacing around the room, furiously. She'd clearly had this all bottled up for a while. He wanted to let her say what she needed.  
"What if I had a spouse? Someone waiting for me? And now they'll never know-"

Benny knew that look. She was trying not to cry. In another life, she'd let herself cry around him. Hell, a few years ago, she'd let herself cry around him. But she held it back right now. She was trying to look strong.

Columbia really forgot him. Was Columbia even real anymore? Or was she just Eddie? No, that was a stupid question. Maybe she was more vulgar, more jaded, but this was still Columbia. Just with a scar on one side of her head, with that half of her head shaved, with an eyepatch.

He wasn't sure how it happened. She hadn't had a drink - he knew that much. But soon, their lips were on each other's. It was the best feeling he'd felt in years.

She was in his bed. He'd seen her body - scarred, but beautiful. Everything about her was beautiful.

That night was burned into his mind. But he couldn't stay. He felt sick with guilt.

What did Benny write in a goodbye note? He couldn't write anything he actually wanted to say. Things like 'I loved you, once, and I still do.' Things like 'I've never forgotten you, even if you've forgotten you.'

So he wrote something, god, he couldn't remember what, and he left.

She had the chance to kill him again, after that, when he knelt beneath her in Caesar's tent.

But she let him go.

And then his desert rose was gone. Columbia, Eddie, they were both gone.

\--

It was ladies' night at the Tops. A new thing they did, just for fun. Ladies drank free that night. Brought a nice crowd in, and the Chairmen all seemed... entertained, to say the least. Good.

It seemed like Benny would be a ladies' man. And maybe he was, he'd flirt a little - but sometimes he flashed the ring on his finger and muttered 'sorry'.

So, he was drinking alone. 

He was drinking alone, until he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"What's she like?"

He nearly choked, and turned to see Eddie sitting next to him. Eddie was alive. Thank fuck.

"...What did you say?"  
Benny tried to recover, setting down his glass.

Eddie nodded towards his ring.  
"What's she like? Don't think I didn't notice when I spent the night with you. But what you do, is your business."

Benny glanced down at the ring, and looked back at Eddie.  
"...She's incredible. An angel, really."  
He laughed dryly.  
"...My angel."

"She sounds nice."  
Eddie replied, flagging down someone for a drink.  
"...Lucky her, huh?"  
  
Benny wished she could see the irony in what she was saying.  
"...Yeah. Lucky her."


End file.
